Ovens are kitchen appliances that are used to cook food. During the cooking process, the interior of the oven, where the food is cooked, may become soiled. For example, food may spill out of a baking pan or splatter during the cooking process. Due to the heat used for cooking, food particles may become baked onto the walls inside the oven. As a result, surfaces inside the oven may be difficult to clean by hand.
Many ovens have a self-cleaning feature. During self-cleaning, the oven interior is subjected to high temperatures. In some ovens, high temperatures are used to provide pyrolytic cleaning, in which food particles are reduced to ash that collects on the bottom of the oven. The ash can be easily removed after the self-cleaning function has finished.
Some ovens have a self-cleaning feature that uses steam, rather than pyrolytic temperatures, to clean the oven walls. The use of steam requires heating the oven to a high enough temperature to cause water inside the oven to boil, in order to create the steam used for cleaning.